Re: Battery drain

I tried an experiment on the third day that I had my phone. I recharged my phone completely (with the phone off) for over 3 hours so it was well topped up. Turned the phone on with the wifi, 3g, backlight and everything BUT the sound off (airplane mode was not on). I went to bed with a 100% charged phone, got up the next morning (9 hours later) and it was down 23%. Excuse me but that is a big OOPS!

(I performed this test before I installed any application or configured my phone such as the e-mail etc.)

I've noticed that the phone autmaticly, unessecary, turns on many apps that are preinstalled as bloatware on my device (that seemingly comes from the Dutch T-mobile, even though I didn't buy it there). Here is the screenshot

Now here is the thing. Everything in this list turns itself on automaticly. Obviously the apps that I installed like skype etc. are my problem, but all bloatware such as Travel & Surf, Maps, Google Play store, Music player etc. all starts up automaticly and the list usually is actually longer. I am not surprised that my phone is draining itself like crazy if all this turns itself on constantly automaticly. Even after I have shut everything down with the Advanced task killer app and I turn my phone on standby, it simply puts everything back on. Makes no sense. I cannot delete all of those bloatware apps, some are restricted but I deleted most.

Yet when I look at my battery performance after deleting some strange bloatware I get this:

Not so strange, but after a closer inspection at the Mobile Standby:

Under the green bar it says "Battery used by radio". I have never radio on, what is that there?

There are more things I am baffled by when I check the system for battery usage on this phone, which programs do what etc. There is so much on regarding apps that I NEVER touch, yet it still is 'on' and working in the background.

But whether all this explains the excessive battery drain on standby, I don't know. Some tech websites suggest that it is due to a software bug that makes the phone go out of standby mode constantly and that draining the phone.

What bothers me is the lack of reaction from Sony. No word on if there will be a fix, when there will be a fix or what it really is. I am about to return my phone and switch brands since this lack of response shows a clear lack of responsibility to their customers.

Re: Battery drain

First of all thank you for thinking along everyone, for things that could be the issue. Let me do some explaining about my situation, I hope that will clear some things up for some people.

I know my way around with smartphones, my job is providing techsupport at one of the biggest telco's in the world

I am running a .67 Generic NL firmware at the moment. 2 full days in use.

Gmail autosync/Gmail app installed.

Hotmail autosync/Hotmail app installed

Facebook/Sony Xperia integration

Live wallpaper

Whatsapp

Weather (standard)

WiFi turned off

That's it. My phone is still bog-standard to be honest.

Did some searching around the internet and found two things on which people were talking a lot.

* Battery pull -> done by pressing volume up+powerbutton on at the same time. You will feel 3 little bumps in a row. Boot again.

* Changing the networkmode to only UMTS

In my case, it seems (for now..) that while running idle/standby, the usage is drastically improved! At this moment when I do some heavy usage (downloading apps, musicplayer, surfing) it seems to perform normal, battery-wise for a smartphone.

I am going to charge it full for the night till 100% and then leave until I get up again in the morning, about 8 eight hours later and see what happens.

Like I said before, I lost 25% battery power every night running this configuration (seems some people lose even more?) and that is really a way bit too much! My other phone is a iPhone4, which can last 2, almost 3 days running almost the same config.

I'm about to ask Sony some questions through Facebook soon. Hope it's a software issue.

Re: Battery drain

Hello Markus,

Can I ask you a question?

Are you directly connected/affliated with Sony Mobile itself?

Every case could be different per user (as in the case of wkapteijn, with possible bloatware), but it seems the majority of people who own this beatiful device, are complaining about the battery-usage. That almost can't be coincidence

Re: Battery drain

I work for Sony Mobile, yes.

I've seen many users complain about battery performance. In many cases it turns out to not really be a problem with the phone/battery, but more a case of the phone not living up to the expectations of the user.

If a person has been using a K800i, for 2-3 years and then buy an Android phone, he/she will most likely react on the battery performance since he/she used to get several days, if not a week, from the old phone compared to the new phone.

An Android phone not being used by any service at all can do that too. My X10 is lying on my desk here at work. No SIM card, not WiFi, basically no nothing except for being powered on. I only charge it once a week.

If you turn things around and put a SIM card in it, activate WiFi, place some calls, send a few text messages, check Facebook and play a game for 20 mins - you can easily drain the battery in half a day.

With this said, I'm not saying there are not one single phone out there with a defect battery. I'm just saying it's not the best way to approach the problem thinking all batteries are broken.

Re: Battery drain

Hello Markus,

Ok great. If I may ask you, what is your field of experience? Techsupport?

I can understand your view in terms of expectations, but in my case that's not the issue. I know my way around with smartphones, due to my work. But this is the first Android device in my hands in which the battery-drain, to put it simply just plain sucks. It's absurd.

Needless to say, after performing the networkmodus to only WCDMA- switch it has gone a bit better but still...comparing it to my other phones (iPhone 4, HTC Sensation XE, both running the same config as on my SXS now)...it drains a lot.

User 'wkapteijn' posted a link in a different thread in which Tweakers conducted some research on the phone and came up with the same question : What is up with the battery drain on this phone?

They (Tweakers) contacted Sony, which in turn replied it could be a possible bug. But no solution!

I hope you can find something out Markus. Is there actually anyone in your vicinity that uses this phone? Did you yourself, use or try it?

Re: Battery drain

I don't use Xperia S as my private phone. I'm still "stuck" with Xperia arc, by choice I should add (waiting for Xperia P).

I do have several colleagues using Xperia S though and I have of course used the phone.

I have seen some reports on Xperia S regarding the battery time where something seems to be a bit off. The phone model is still very young though so it's hard to draw much conclusion.

If it's OK with you, I would like you to test something.

- Charge your phone to 100% before going to bed. Check the battery status and usage when you wake up.

- Do the same thing the next day/night but start the phone in safe mode this time (go bananas on the Menu key during start up to get it in safe mode). Check the status and usage again.

As I suspect you already know, all user installed apps and services are by-passed when in safe mode. This seem to make big improvements for some users even though they have not installed any "suspicious" apps.

Not sure what to make our of this but several users with Xperia S seem to have no problem at all with the battery performance whilst others are complaining.

I'd love to file a huge escalation ticket to the developers/project team but I simply cannot forward a "please investigate the battery" comment when all phones don't have the problem. Hope you understand this.

Re: Battery drain

Quote Markus : I have seen some reports on Xperia S regarding the battery time where something seems to be a bit off. The phone model is still very young though so it's hard to draw much conclusion.

Agreed that it is hard to draw a conclusion. But some signs are telling me something is going on with this phone, not an incidental issue but a structural one. It seems that the majority of users has a battery-drain issue with the phone....

The strange thing is indeed, how some people manage to get 'less' battery-drain by doing all kinds of things. A matter of perception which I will come back again later in my post.

Also it seems...and here it comes, that some people stopped/froze some kind of process (will look it up later and edit my post) by using Titanium Backup (can be used if your phone is rooted it seems) and it seemed to solve the issue?. How this (that perticular process) is related to my possible solution..what I did on my phone to decrease drain (WCDMA only)... No clue.

It's all a matter of perception, offcourse...I wholeheartedly agree with you on that too Markus, but coming from a couple of smartphones (privately used) and using them all day at my work, it just feels very off when I have to charge my phone every couple of hours to last long enough while doing even basic stuff on it. No intense usage. If you have a look at my earlier post, you will see what i'm running at the moment. Bog-standard. Just basic stuff. Tldr; too long too list again...

Quote Markus :

I'd love to file a huge escalation ticket to the developers/project team but I simply cannot forward a "please investigate the battery" comment when all phones don't have the problem. Hope you understand this.

Sure, I know what you're talking about, due to my own work. We need to get things precise, exact of which FW; which configurations; etc; etc..and then we can submit it to a higher level ie; eng./dev.

A matter of perception. For now, it seems that there actually is no problem at all, only with a couple of phones/configurations....but that is because like you said, the phone has been on the market for what..3/4 weeks? Maybe only a small userbase is complaining as of this moment, because the phone didn't find it's way to the vast majority of buyers, yet.

Don't get me wrong. I love this phone with all it's little but brilliant features. I really don't want to trade it in for a competitor, in the likes of the HTC One X if this issue does not get resolved by Sony in a short period. It's impossible for me to actually enjoy and especially trust the phone if it is behaving like this. Hope you can understand that too.

Sorry for my long post, but I hope we can work on a solution together. Will do the things you've asked me to do. Should I put my networkmode back to Auto?

Re: Battery drain

I have been conducting an experiment with this phone all day long with the best possible config I could get done myself after having deleted a whole bunch of bloatware. The battery performance is better, and i will put my findings online this evening including a log of everything I have done today, but the standby mode is using consistently around 10% of battery ever 3 hours and 45 minutes. This is WITHOUT using the phone! After a full charge only only standby, nothing else on (wifi, 3g, backlight, brightness 25% etc.). I truly and truly regret buying this phone and I will (sadly, since I have bought an expensive phone cover for this) return the phone and ask for my money back which they should be able to do within the 14 days of getting the phone. No offence but this is not been taking seriously whatsoever. Anyway you'll get my screenshots, log and report this evening but it is very disappointing.